Disposal of organic wastes in landfills and by incineration has become an increasingly difficult problem because of diminishing availability of disposal space, strengthened governmental regulations, and the growing public awareness of the impact of hazardous substance contamination upon the environment. Release of hazardous organic wastes to the environment can contaminate air and water supplies, thereby diminishing the quality of life in the affected populations.
To minimize the environmental effects of the disposal of organic wastes, methods must be developed to convert these wastes into benign, and preferably, useful substances. In response to this need, there has been a substantial investment in the development of alternate methods for suitably treating hazardous organic wastes. One of the most promising new methods is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,574,714 and 4,602,574, issued to Bach and Nagel. The Bach/Nagel method for destroying organic material, including toxic wastes, involves decomposition of the organic material to its atomic constituents in a molten metal bath and reformation of these atomic constituents into environmentally acceptable products, including hydrogen, carbon monoxide and/or carbon dioxide gases.
Many hazardous wastes are bulk solids. These wastes can be directed into reactors containing molten metal baths by top loading them onto the baths. However, wastes directed onto molten metal baths often only partially decompose or volatilize before entering the baths. Consequently, these materials can be discharged with other gases exhausted from the reactors before destruction of the hazardous components of the wastes is complete. Alternatively, solid wastes can be pretreated, such as by forming the wastes into fluidized particulate streams and then injecting the streams beneath the surface of molten metal baths through tuyeres. However, pretreatment of solid hazardous wastes requires additional handling and can be time consuming and expensive.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus for dissociating bulk waste in a molten metal bath which overcomes the above-referenced problems.